Boarding - need advice

[Cory Trese]

I like to give each Crew Member 2 weapons (that is Crew * 2 - Engines = Weapons in Hold.)

I also suggest that you strike fear before boarding. My boarding attackers do this:

Round #1: Torp!
Round #2: Close
Round #3: Guns
Round #4: Close
Round #5: Decks (now they're scared!)
Round #6: Board

-- If, upon loosing a Boarding Action AND your ship did not take a hit, immediately Gun.

More than likely the enemy still has Crew in shuttles or allocated to "outside the ship"

With 70 Crew I would try to have 60 weapons =)

[slayernz]

My Cadar capt tends to do
Round #1: Torp!
Round #2: Torp!
Round #3: Torp!
Round #4: Torp!
Round #5: Torp!
Round #6: oops ... where did that ship go? It was RIGHT there!

[phantum]

Do the weapons benefit the crew on the engines (why not?) or did you mean (Crew-engines) * 2. I have practised the mechanics of using a big hammer on engines, but never an assault rifle...

May 18, 2011 0:20:49 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

I like to give each Crew Member 2 weapons (that is Crew * 2 - Engines = Weapons in Hold.)

[oldalchemist]

Advance, through a hail of torpedoes before they can home.
Gun, to clear out that first salvo that's been sitting in the chamber, exposed to the rigors of space
Advance, hello pretty...
Engines, Engines, Engines. You can hide, but you can't run.
Decks, you can't hide either.
Engines, Engines, Engines. Really, why isn't this over yet?
Decks, Olly Olly Oxen Free!
Retreat, Gun, Advance, Engines, Engines, Engines. Maybe I was shooting at the wrong side of the ship?

[Tenebrous Pirate]

May 18, 2011 0:20:49 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

I like to give each Crew Member 2 weapons (that is Crew * 2 - Engines = Weapons in Hold.)

More than likely the enemy still has Crew in shuttles or allocated to "outside the ship"

With 70 Crew I would try to have 60 weapons =)

Enemy ships have upgrades like shuttles?!?

And, are their really allocations of crew to stuff like shuttles?

[Cory Trese]

#1
Weapons benefit the crew on the Engines ONLY if the enemy ship wins Boarding action and gets hostile Crew on Board.

#2
Enemy ships have an "upgrade package" that is consistent for the character class of the pirates. They are not specifically "Attack Shuttles" but they have many of the same modifiers.

#3.
After Boarding is completed, the game is tracking "Crew Points" in various Locations. In a battle between Good Ship and Bad Ship, the Crew of Good Ship could be:

A: On Good Ship
B: In Transit To Bad Ship
C: Fighting Inside Bad Ship
D: Fighting Inside Critical Area of Bad Ship
E: Fighting with Captain Inside Bad Ship
F: Fighting with Captain on Bridge of Bad Ship

So, sometimes you will fight at Boarding Range but repel Boarders. Therefore, the Crew points are stuck in "B" and are very vulnerable to destruction in the next turn.

If you think about it as a dice game, the Captains are allocating Crew orders (say, as cards face down on the table) and then rolling dice to see who's cards, and how many, are flipped up. The result is the mix of cards.

[phantum]

The amount of hidden depth you have put in to this game never ceases to amaze me. Every time I think I have tried enough permutations to understand an aspect of the game I get blown out of the water by an order of magnitude.

Sooo... when you get to implementing general relativity or quantum field theory into the game then let me be your consultant!

[Tenebrous Pirate]

This is very interesting. Thanks for the insight Cory. No wonder I have not been able to work out a rhyme or reason with boarding results well enough to reliably predict and work on a strategy. I feel a lot less frustrated now!

[boeu]

Im sticking to the taking of engines theory. I generally die on the boarding tactic.